


lost boys

by silent_masque



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-13
Updated: 2016-08-13
Packaged: 2018-08-08 12:03:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7757155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silent_masque/pseuds/silent_masque
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The stars bear witness to Shiro's homecoming in Keith's arms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	lost boys

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lumieres](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lumieres/gifts).



Stars are bigger in space. 

Shiro on the bridge, silhouetted against the glow of some far - flung nebula and a sun, is an image Keith wants to pocket and tuck away forever. Maybe he’d keep it under his pillow, so he can look at it every night before he sleeps. Or maybe he’ll keep it in the inner pocket of his jacket, pressed up against his heart. 

“When we flew out to Kerberos, I didn’t get to see any of this.” Shiro turns, still half - lit in the starlight. Keith’s hands tighten on the ends of his jacket, curl into fists to attack something he can’t  _ hit _ , can’t even  _ touch _ . There’s years to Shiro that he keeps close and doesn’t let even Keith see yet, years that space has carved out in this man that Keith loves, and he can’t do anything to reclaim them - for Shiro or himself. 

“We were asleep, cryogenically. They froze us for months, and we didn’t wake up until we were almost at the landing site. So all of this,” he gestures at the window, at the nebula and its nascent stars and the sun and the galaxy Keith doesn’t know, and at Keith, “I missed.”

The galaxy -- the  _ universe _ \-- narrows onto this moment on the bridge when Shiro slides into Keith’s space. First a hand on Keith’s, sliding down over his wrist, a question. And when Keith doesn’t move, hardly dares to breathe, a step between them, an offering. Then it’s Keith’s answer, reaching for Shiro’s shoulder to pull him close.

“You made it here,” Keith says into Shiro’s shoulder. His forehead presses against Shiro’s collarbone and he squeezes his eyes shut to savor this. Shiro’s voice and fisting a hand in Shiro’s shirt and Shiro’s head resting against his and Shiro’s hand resting in his. 

“I made it to you.” 

It’s Shiro’s Galra hand that presses him up against Shiro, stroking through his hair with infinite gentleness. Another question, one that Keith has answered over and over again, that this is part of Shiro too and Keith won’t be afraid of it. He squeezes Shiro’s hand that he’s still holding, to answer again. 

Stars are bigger in space than they ever were in the desert and it makes Keith drunk with the thought of how much space  _ is _ , and how, even barreling through galaxies no one on Earth will ever see, Shiro is  _ still _ the best thing that’s happened to him. 

“You almost didn’t,” Keith says. He catches the way Shiro’s Galra hand stills and tightens over his shoulder and the hitch in Shiro’s breathing because his chest is tight in the same way, in danger of being crushed by the weight of his own feelings, past, present, and future. 

It’s a dig he means to make. The foundation of their relationship never was built on sensitivity or tact. 

“You’ll forgive me for it,” Shiro murmurs. 

But it’s okay because Shiro gives as good as he takes, and he doesn’t take an inch more of Keith’s aggression than he wants (or than he thinks is reasonable or safe to accept). (Keith has Lance to work off the rest of it.)

“Maybe someday,” Keith says, letting his eyes close so he can memorize this. He’s already forgiven Shiro, forgave him the day he left for Kerberos and every day since. 

(First because he thought Shiro would never be able to love space enough if he really felt bad about leaving Keith behind.) (And then because maybe if Keith said sorry enough times to the stars, they’d give Shiro back.)

Shiro’s years in space are lost to Keith, splintered off in some part of him that was left on the Galra ship that stole him away. But the years Keith spent without Shiro are locked away, to be forgotten or to gather dust in his heart, but they’re not for Shiro yet. 

Maybe someday. 

“I think right now would be as good a time as any,” Shiro says. He presses a kiss against Keith’s temple with the ghost of a smile on his lips, and it’s a promise. 

It’s  _ I’m here now _ and it’s  _ this is mine _ and  _ I won’t let you go _ . It’s  _ give me this _ and  _ take all I have _ . It’s the promise of a million, a billion, more promises, more than there are stars in the sky.

It’s Keith’s. 

If he wants it.

“Just don’t run off this time,” Keith says. “I’ll drag you back here if I have to.”

“I think that sounds like a plan.” Shiro grins. The edges of his easy smile from the Garrison are choppy, cut and pasted together by trials that Keith will never know about, that only space and the stars and a Galra cell and Shiro will ever know. But it still warms Keith all over to see it. It’s not the same, but it feels the same. 

Shiro grins and the universe screeches to a halt to marvel. It’s Keith’s place in the world, in the vastness of all of space, a piece carved out for him in Shiro’s smile. Shiro grins and it’s Keith’s homecoming. 

“I’ll do the same for you,” Shiro says. 

Keith breathes in and then out and searches Shiro’s face for a lie that they both know isn’t there. 

“I’d find you too. I’d bring you back too.” When Shiro says it, it sounds simple enough. When Shiro says anything like that, with the conviction that carries him into and out of battle, it sounds simple enough. “I wouldn’t let you go either.”

Keith drops his grip on Shiro’s hand, untangles their fingers with the work of a moment and just touches Shiro’s face. Feather light and gentle and careful and all of other the things their relationship didn’t start with, but were piled on to strengthen everything that built it (things that Shiro showed him, because before, all Keith could build from was passion).

“I’ll be waiting for you, then.”

Keith stretches up and Shiro leans down and when they kiss, it’s not fireworks. It’s stars going supernova. 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks @ lumieres for encouraging the terrible habit of writing at 2 am
> 
> follow me on tumblr @ [robininred](http://robininred.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
